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Ivelchester and Langport Navigation

Ivelchester and Langport Navigation
Pill Bridge Ilchester geograph 1914242.jpg
Pill Bridge, the packhorse bridge that crosses the Yeo at Ilchester
Specifications
Status never completed
History
Date of act 1795
Geography
Start point Ilchester
End point Langport
Connects to River Parrett

The Ivelchester and Langport Navigation was a scheme to make the River Ivel (now called the River Yeo) navigable from Langport to Ilchester, in Somerset, England. Work started in 1795, but the scheme was effectively bankrupt by 1797, and construction of the locks was never completed.

Ilchester was a Roman garrison town, built at the point where the Fosse Way crossed the River Ivel, and there is evidence that the Romans built quays on the river. There are mentions of boats using the river in the 13th century, and in a survey carried out in 1632 by Gerard. However, the Ivel was never a large river, and when there was inadequate water to reach Ilchester, goods were unloaded at Pill Bridge, which crossed the river 1.5 miles (2.4 km) downstream from the town. All goods moving from that bridge to the town had to pay tolls to the Borough of Ilchester, which increased the price of coal to the inhabitants. Navigation was also hampered by the restrictive size of the medieval bridge arch at Langport. The Ivelchester and Langport Navigation was conceived as a way of ensuring that boats could always reach the Ilchester town wharfs, and therefore duty would not be paid on goods using Pill Bridge Lane.

Following a meeting with representatives from the Dorset and Somerset Canal, which was part of a grand scheme to link the Bristol Channel to the English Channel, a number of local businessmen obtained an Act of Parliament on 22 June 1795, which made provision for improving the river between Ilchester and Bicknell Bridge, just to the south east of Langport, and then cutting through the town along the course of the Portlake Rhine, which was then a drain, and rejoining the River Parrett below Langport lock. The act allowed the proprietors to raise £6,000 by issuing shares, and a further £2,000 in loans, if required.

Around three quarters of the share capital had been promised before the act was obtained, and so work commenced immediately. The plans involved widening the Portlake Rhine, building a lock close to the Little Bow bridge, near the centre of the town, and making a cut to join the River Parrett again near Bicknell's Bridge, which would include two more locks. A further four locks were to be constructed between there and Ilchester. The engineer was a local man called Josiah Easton, and good progress was made in the first six months at the Langport end of the scheme, but costs were escalating, and by October 1796, the scheme was in difficulty. The £6,000 of share capital had all been spent, but little work had been done on removing shoals from the river towards Ilchester. In 1797, outstanding debts were cleared and the scheme was effectively abandoned.


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